New Final Touch Operator for Wellington.

2009 will not be remembered by many as the year that they launched into a new venture but We're stoked to be able to introduce a guy that is doing just that-
Mr Craig Dias has joined the team and will be developing and running the Final Touch operation in the Wellington region. Wellington has been needing a quality Final Touch operator for years and although Craig is quite new to the industry we are sure that his desire for quality and his attention to detail will ensure that he builds a very successful operation in the capitol city.
Craig can be contacted on 0212724430 or by email craig@finaltouch.co.nz We'd recommend getting in touch with him early so you can become one of his 'original' customers.

Wicked Ferrari F40

Sometimes we work on truly unique and rare vehicles; this one here is a particularly rare one and we were privileged to have the opportunity to work on such a vehicle today.

There's not much more to say about it really except perhaps that there has to be a certain irony with having two cars parked side by side in a garage, One an F40 Ferrari and the other... well you can see it in the photo down below :)

LHD rules

I heard a rumor recently that there are some possible/probable regulation changes in the review process for LHD importing, particularly with respect with the 90 day ownership rules.
It's exciting, and makes something like a Dodge Charger Super Bee a possibility for the family sedan sometime in the future, without the possibility of the change it would just be a pipe dream.

To find out more check the NZ mustang link - http://http//www.nzmustang.com/Thisthat/LHD-RHD-A.htm and keep those fingers crossed.

Perhaps a F150 Lightning is a possibility for a new work ute after all haha.

Now I cant condone this sort of driving outside of controlled conditions (TV driving as Mr Hammond puts it) but I can't wait till I see more of these sort of vehicles on Kiwi roads at realistic values

Buonjiorno Itialia

Recently I had the pleasure of jet-setting off to Italy to work with a company that has taken on the Final Touch Paint Repair System.

What an experience. My first trip to Europe and I really didn't know what to expect but it was a fantastic time. The Italians that I worked with were as passionate as I'd been prepared to expect and they had a genuine desire to ensure that they got the best results from the Final Touch (chip-fix as they called it) system. The standard set by the team was nothing short of excellence and they would ensure they didn't sign off until it was done properly.

This company http://www.daddario.it/ is pretty big with multiple dealerships, a massive staff and this big workshop near Taranto with something like 800 vehicles a month processed for sale handling everything from paint and panel, mechanical, interior and glass repairs, Final Touch and smart repairs through to valet and pre-delivery. Their paint prep area had 10 preparation bays and a spray booth that can paint three cars at a time. These guys are busy.

Aleaea and Angelo, our two new Final Touch expert technicians with a couple of Fiat's. I've never seen so many Fiats...

The region we were in was pretty coastal and ironically we travelled to the other side of the world to stay at a hotel called "Eden Park Hotel". I was fortunate enough to be welcomed as a football star amongst the locals as Mr Daddario also owns the local football team. I was pretty quick to dispel the myth unless they tried to entice me to kick a ball or something and found me out. Must say I was pretty chuffed by the suggestion however. Beckham eat your heart out.

Eden Park Hotel

Italian food is as we all know, delicious, the local Primetivo wine is superb (and surprisingly cheap @ about $4 Euro for a bottle) and although the locals are very welcoming and friendly they don't speak a lot of English. It helps to know someone in the area that can speak both languages as no matter how many times one might repaeat himself in english, the other guy won't gain extra understanding. The reverse is also true.

Rome, just before getting lost

I could go on more about the trip, Taranto at night, the effects of too much local wine and Limoncello, long long working days, Personal Drivers/bodyguards and interesting trips home as well as getting lost in Rome during a late afternoon walk about. It is best to say however that I hope that I get to go back some time, it was experience that i never thought I'd have this year and I'm very thankful for the opportunity. Viva Italia

SpeedShow Update BMW M3

So Sunday came around and we were right back into it again...

Another very generous Car owner (Riaan) had kindly lent us his BMW M3 for the day,


Riaans BMW was in very good condition but it had quite a few stonechips across the front and around the wheel arches etc... (those tyres throw up a few stones on a vehicle designed for speed and handling- heck, it's Speedshow after all) so it was the perfect vehicle to showcase our spray and wipe Paint touch up system.

Jessie was kept busy throughout the day explaining our Paint Repair process to interested onlookers

There were a couple gaps in traffic when some of the outside entertainment was in full swing that allowed us a moment or two to get a shot away of the cars without people standing in front.

All finished as the day drew to a close, looking pretty darned smart.

Thanks a lot Riaan for lending us your fine motor vehicle for the day, We hope you were as stoked with the result as were were to have the use of such a performance motor vehicle.

Now all Jokes aside, Just how serious were you when you were running through the impressive specs of the New Kia Cerato. Nice car definitely but no BMW M3 ;)

Speedshow 2009 Update F150 Lightning

Bright and early Saturday morning I joined the throng of exhibitors outside the showgrounds, the burble of conversations all along the lines of hopes and expectations for the weekend, weather predictions and the like.

Our work was going to be cut out for us this weekend with my Dream Pickup, a F150 Lightning on the stand for a bit of Final Touch Makeover Treatment and a really nice and tidy (but quite stonechipped) BMW M3 lined up for Sunday's treatment. We'd put a lot of effort into putting the stand together and while it wasn't the most bling looking display it was definitely going to be one with plenty of action taking place.

This F150 just so happened to have been kindly loaned to us for the weekend by an owner who uses it as a daily driver in the concrete and construction industry so it was well and truly ready for a Final Touch treatment. We were hoping for a before/after result that would really test us and I think we got it.

On Arrival-
Craig (the generous owner of the Lightning) had asked if he needed to clean it before dropping it off for the weekend, we'd said no...

We decided a 1/2 and 1/2 before and after of the front end was on the cards with a vehicle like this

Well and truly underway now.

Front end Before and 'almost' after, with a few remaining chips filled and ready to wipe. From Smokey black to Stunning Black in just a few hours.

Orbital Polishing with a special Microfibre polishing bonnet to remove the Meguiars wax and give a brilliant, swirl free shine. Tiho (pictured on the polisher) did a fantastic job of detailing the truck, including a waterless engine bay and interior detail

Grant hard at work fixing the stonechips etc... Grant also hard at work touching up Stonechips and scratches.

It looked positively stunning when it was completed, the guy from the stand reflected in the side panels was pretty impressed.

Another angle,

Outside in the sun, swirl free polish with Stonechips touched upI've got to admit I was a bit nervous about giving it back to Craig, because I wasn't too sure what he'd be expecting but He was stoked, even made the comment that 'it was so shiny that he wasn't sure that he wanted to drive it to work anymore' which was just what we were wanting to hear...

Definitely a project vehicle but we got a great result and a lot of positive feedback so we were stoked.

Thanks a lot Craig for the loan of such a great vehicle for the weekend, we hope your enjoying driving the Lightning even more now. Your truck has got me trying to figure out ways to import one for myself now.

SpeedShow 2009 19-20th September

Come and see us at SpeedShow 2009.

Yep we'll be there showing the fantastic Final Touch system to the motoring public at the ASB Showgrounds on the 19th and 20th of September.

Speedshow promises to be a great weekend with all sorts of fantastic things to see and do, The Worlds Fastest NASCAR will be there before attempting a new NZ land speed record. The Batmobile from the first Michael Keaton movie is will be there and even Roary the Racing Car will be there in the children's area for the kids. My wife is bringing a group of children down for one of the days and I know they are amping to get amongst it. Our Mr 7 is a huge fan of motor racing, especially NASCAR's so he can't wait to arrive.

We'll be on stand #70 which is just behind the main display area in the main hall. We'd love to see you there and have a good chat about how our services might be of benefit on your vehicle.

It needs to be confirmed but at this stage it's looking like we have a great project F150 Lightning to work on and a BMW M3 as well so there will be some great vehicles to see as we do our thing.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Cars 2 The movie

With two small boys in the house it is inevitable that Dad will be very familiar with the Pixar Cars movie, Lightning McQueen, Mater Doc, Sally etc...

Actually I'll admit it, I'm a fan anyway so it helps to have two wee fellas to enjoy it with. Recently they were talking about some short Cars movies that they had seen on Playhouse Disney so I got to looking on Youtube. Turns out there's a few of them and they're part of a teaser package for a new Cars 2 movie. Have a look for yourself, I've put a link to 'Tokyo Mater" below it's a little bit Cars meets Fast and Furious :)

Cars 2 I cant wait...

We need your help. Speedshow 2009

Final Touch is going to Speedshow in Greenlane in September
We'll be demonstrating our process - High quality Cut & Polishing using Meguiar's of course and the Final Touch StoneChip and Scratch repair system over the weekend and we're looking for some special vehicles to showcase the process on.
We'll approach some of our LMVD customers to see if they'd be keen supply cars but we're keen to get hold of some less typical vehicles with stonechips etc...
I really want to find a scratched/chipped/faded paint Ford F150 Lightning in either black or red if anyone knows of one. I have a couple of leads to follow but if you happen to have one or know of someone with one who might be happy to lend it to us for display over a weekend 19-20 September I'd love to talk to you, you can call me directly on (09) 3581141.

Swirl Free Polishing

Our 'Swirl Free Polish' skills were really put to the test with this one, less than a year old and with a vibrant paint job that shows every little mark, the boys had their work really cut out for themselves to get the vehicle looking this good.

The Lads were up to the task

Mopar Man

Ok so I know that a little while back I publicly stated that I'd fallen in love with the new Mustangs and that they were almost enough to turn the fascinations of a Mopar Man. This would remain so outside of the existence of the Dodge SRT cars and in particular the incredibly fine (coolest car in the world) that I was very privileged to be taken for a spin in yesterday.

As far as I know it's the only legal LHD 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT in the country and it is flippin cool. Riding on 22" American Racing Wheels with a complete Magnaflow exhaust system and coloured in Hemi orange it is just the coolest car I've ever been in (cooler than a Lambo)

Owned by a genuinely nice guy the car has already had an interesting life, it was purchased in the USA and driven down the coast where it was admired by many. I believe it was the first production Challenger to meet the great Mr Foose and it gained with his full approval while the guys were able to enjoy a pre-SEMA viewing of the 'Terracuda 'http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/05/sema-2008-chip-foose-unveils-his-latest-creation-the-terracuda/ which was a rare privilege as was meeting the team from Lanzini's who were pretty keen to give the Hemi a good once over.

Shipped to NZ and taking the slow but careful route through compliance to the owners garage it is now being enjoyed as a weekend driver and I was very lucky to be a weekend passenger in it yesterday. One could go on about the raw power of the Hemi, the sweet notes emanating from the magnaflow or the sheer presence that it exudes even sitting silently in the driveway but it wouldn't do it justice. The most telling thing is that this car makes grown men stop and stare, forgetting themselves and whatever it might be they were doing at the time (including driving), it is completely attention arresting.

It is quite simply the coolest car. I hope to polish it one day although I know the owner will take a lot of pleasure out of doing it himself. More than anything it has increased my resolve to purchase one of the new Dodge's at some point in the future Challenger or Charger... 2 doors or 4...?

Coming Soon

There are some pretty exciting things in the pipeline at Final Touch and while we can't yet reveal what we're up to, we can say that we're adding a new service or two to the mix and we'll be working even more closely with other S.M.A.R.T Repair companies to help make caring for your vehicles even better.
Stay tuned, as soon as we have more information to give we'll let you know. "You'll hear it here first"

Rare as hens teeth,

It's not often that you get asked to work on truly rare cars, Rare Group B rally cars come up even less frequently so we couldn't not put a little post up about the car that Grant and Tiho were asked to work on recently.

Unfortunately the car was in a workshop when we went to see it so we've had to pinch some photo's off the owners own website but our guys were absolutely stoked to work on such a unique vehicle and they assure me that they left it looking top knotch when they's finished.

Thanks a lot to PJ for the opportunity to work on one of the coolest cars anywhere.

Ferrari Stonechips

Everybody (well almost everybody) loves Ferrari's and it's great to get an opportunity for some unique process photos so it was most fortunate that I had my camera on board when we were asked to touch up this beauty.

It was quite heavily chipped for a Ferrari, which means it's been driven and Ferrari's that actually get driven are the best kind.

More chips, (We'd polished it already)

With all the Stonechips sprayed out, you can really see how badly chipped she really was.

Partially wiped.

And again from a different angle.

It came up great.

All finished and ready to hand back to the customer.

Vehicles like this one have got us thinking seriously about adding a Premium Service option to our Business as we realise that there are quite a few people who are genuinely looking for something extra special in looking after their vehicle presentation. If you think you might be interested in this Premium Service please let me know. We'll announce more about the service in the near future.

Catching up with Dad.

Recently we went and caught up with Dad, (Neil as most Auto Industry people know him) I'm asked regularly about how he's doing and I hadn't seen him for quite a while so it was great to see him again. As you can see he's fit and well and really enjoying being back farming in Northern Southland again and he sends his best wishes to all his friends and former customers back in Auckland.

We all had a great time visiting on the farm, driving trucks, tractors, quad-bikes (especially the grand kids) baling hay etc... It was great to get the original Final Touch team back together for a few days; Meanwhile the team in Auckland were doing a great job of working hard and looking after our customers.

I couldn't resist another Mustang Photo.

This was a car that I was privileged to work on as a result of the 'Auckland All Ford Day' I was just repairing Stonechips and it came up really well. The owner was really pleased with the job. I left the site in love with the car, An 05 GT 500 Elanor. These new mustangs will just about turn this Mopar man to a ford fanatic.

Beach Hop Fame

Well maybe that sounds flasher than reality but we made the Beach Hop Pictorial for Beach Hop 2009. Admitedly it's a small photo tucked away at the back on page 68 but check your copy and there's Grant and Gordon showcasing the best Meguiars products on Jude Habib's 64 Mustang.

Stoked.

This was the mustang just as we were getting underway, the photo from the Pictorial was taken later on.

We had a lot of fun at the Beach Hop this year, it seems like ages ago now, just like summer seems like ages ago but we had a really productive time working with Meguiars again to ensure that the public was able to see the best products being used properly to get great results on great classic cars.

This car polished up beautifully, even I was impressed by the reflections that showed in the finished result.

This Roadster was pretty nice and another one that we polished up, the brightwork came up beautifully.

I can't help it, my favourite vehicle from the weekend was this Super Snake, it seems almost sacreligious considering the weekend's focus but I've fallen for the new generation Mustangs bigtime. They've managed to merge the best of the old mustangs with a totally modern look and feel and they don't come any better than this one.

I'm looking forward to Beach Hop 2010 already.

Site Upgrade

Well we've changed the formatt of www.finaltouch.co.nz and we hope you like the difference, we've tried to make it brighter and easier to read/navigate and we'll be re-stocking our store beginning later this week.
We'd appreciate any feedback. Cheers G

Before and After, Badly Scratched Black Vehicle

Every now and then you come across a real challenge. When I arrived on site to Final Touch this car I could barely believe my eyes.

Recently this vehicle was valeted by a gar grooming company (just who I'm not sure) that really shouldn't be grooming, enough said. It was like they'd polished it with a pot scrub.

It really did look this bad and it wasn't just the front, it was over the whole flippin' vehicle.

The bonnet 1/2 polished, I couldn't believe it, I had to stop, clean the dust off and take a photo

I hate to say it, but 5 Hours Later (yes 5 hours of polishing) it finally looked like it should and the customer was very happy.

Kumeu Car Show

We were very privileged to be invited to partner with the great team from Meguiar's http://www.meguiars.co.nz/ for the Kumeu Hod Rod and Classic Car Show this year. We were onsite with the team to help showcase the great range of Meguiar's car care products and to show the public that you can achieve professional quality results with products designed to be used by the everyday car enthusiast. We had a great weekend, we got to work on some great vehicles using a wide variety of products and had some great feedback. We were even able to give some valuable advice to onlookers that were wanting to get their vehicles looking the best they possibly can as well. It was a great experience working with Mequiar's, the team is very knowledgeable and helpful and the products of course are world class. We hope we get the chance to do it again

Some photos from the weekend.

The Petrol head Magazine Falcon XR8 Got the full polish treatment and came up looking pretty wicked for a company vehicle.

Mr Rogan Hampson's all Aluminium Cobra is a pretty special car and we were stoked to be given the opportunity to test out the new Meguiar's Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum Polish. We're not sure that the polish was ever designed for such a job but it proved more than capable for the task.

Before:

After:

Sunday was a day for GM product as it turned out and Kev' from streetneat.com had us polishing his VE Ute, it came up mint and he let us park it alongside one of our vans for the afternoon. I can't forget to mention that one of their hotrods was awarded one of the top prizes of the weekend.
This 57 Chevy Pickup was an unexpected surprise, Being white I was a little nervous about just how much we'd be able to increase the 'Wow' factor, well the traditional styled Meguiar's Cleaner Wax layered up beautifully and the end result was a sight worth seeing. We used the metal polish again on all the brightwork and the finished result had the owner smiling.
We love this sort of customer reaction.

There's two cars that we workd on that I've misplaced the photo's for, we had a brand new 2009 Ford FPV GT Falcon lent to us for the weekend by the team at North Harbour ford and it looked awesome (I can also attest to how awesome they are to drive), we also polished a really nice VZ HSV Clubsport thanks to Peter from the HSV Owners club (and The Powertool Centre in Glenfield). When I find those photo's I'll post them up.

Thank you to Darlene and the team at Meguiar's for such a great opportunity to work with you all.